The present invention relates to chemical peel that is used to improve the appearance of the skin by reducing roughness or dryness, treat acne and scars, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and improve coloration by reducing age spots and other skin blemishes (e.g., skin pigmentation such as senile lentigo). More particularly, the present invention relates to a bandage pad for chemical peels for applying a chemical peeling agent to the skin of a wearer in chemical peels.
People have been using more and more cosmetic preparations with a low content of a chemical peeling agent, such as α-hydroxy acid (AHA), that improves the condition of the skin and that is effective for removing fine lines, wrinkles and freckles. Removal of fine lines, wrinkles, and freckles has been established as a medical field in western countries. In Japan, necessity for such treatments has been recognized in recent years. Studies on the treatments from a medical standpoint are being conducted widely with a surge in recognition.
Treatment of skin using a chemical peeling agent is typically called “chemical peel”. Chemical peels are performed with chemical peeling agents such as trichloroacetic acids (TCAs), phenols, and fruit acids (e.g., α-hydroxy acids (AHAs)). The chemical peeling agent is applied to the skin as an aqueous solution at an appropriate concentration for a certain period of time. This results in a controlled chemical “burn” or “erosion” of the top layers of the skin. In other words, liquid chemicals as described above are applied to the skin to separate and peel off portions of the stratum corneum or the epidermis of the skin, which stimulates the production of new skin cells to treat the skin.
Chemical peel requires application of a chemical peeling agent to the skin at an appropriate concentration. Direct application of the chemical peeling agent to the skin of a wearer has, however, many problems in conjunction with formulation and operations of application. It tends to produce uncovered portions of the skin or result in uneven applications of the peeling agent. With this respect, a more convenient and easier application of the chemical peeling agent to the skin is considered that uses a bandage pad or a similar patch for chemical peels. Conventional bandage pads designed to stay on the skin for chemical peels have a backing made of fabric with a chemical peeling agent applied thereto.
Chemical peels typically stimulate regeneration of the skin by certain loading. Higher concentration of chemical peeling agents or unnecessarily longer contact with the chemical peeling agent may produce undesired effects on the skin such as inflammation and excessive denaturation of cells or proteins. The concentration of chemical peeling agents and the time interval for which a bandage pad for chemical peels is left on the skin to achieve the optimum result can be prescribed to a certain degree based on the experiments of an attending physician or results of preliminary tests. However, responses to therapeutic substances vary greatly from individual to individual. Even the response varies from day to day depending on, for example, the wearer's condition. It is significantly hard to make an exact prognosis of such responses.
Chemical peels may cause undesirable skin reactions, such as frosting (whitening due to the denaturation of superficial proteins), rash, or redness, on the skin of the wearer. If the wearer has such skin reactions, he or she should immediately discontinue the use of the treatment. In some cases, another agent should be applied to the skin to neutralize the peeling agent.
However, it is impossible to check the condition of the skin under the influence of the chemical peeling agent without removing the bandage pad for chemical peels when the bandage pad is not see-through. The impossibility of instantaneous checking of the influence on the skin tends to defer decision of interruption of treatment when chemical peels are performed excessively.
It is thus required that the bandage pad for chemical peels be able to provide an advantage for the application of peeling agents and allow physicians to monitor the condition of the skin during a therapeutic treatment in order to make the bandage pad more feasible and practical. A more widespread use of them cannot be achieved till the above-mentioned problems are solved.
For chemical peels, the chemical peeling agent should be applied so that all areas of the skin to be treated are covered evenly.
If frosting, rash, redness, or inflammation is caused on the skin of the wearer in treatment with a bandage pad for chemical peels, it is necessary to remove the bandage pad immediately. Complete removal of the bandage pad for chemical peels, however, turns out an interruption of treatment of areas where no inflammation is observed. In such a case, these areas are treated only insufficiently. It is difficult to treat all areas of the skin to be treated evenly with conventional bandage pads for chemical peels.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a practical bandage pad for chemical peels.
More specifically, the present invention is directed to provide a bandage pad for chemical peels that offers combined advantages of easier application and treatment of skin by chemical peels while monitoring the condition of the skin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bandage pad for chemical peels with which interruption of treatment or application of a neutralizing agent can be made immediately only at the site where undesirable reactions occur while continuing chemical peel of the remaining sites.